Buckeyes on the return of Urban Meyer to sideline: ‘He drives our culture’

Ohio State plays Tulane at 3:30 p.m. Saturday

COLUMBUS —

Life has returned to normal for the Ohio State Buckeyes in that they will play the remaining nine regular-season games with their head coach, Urban Meyer, on the sideline. His three-game suspension ended Saturday when Ohio State beat Texas Christian 40-28.

The Buckeyes went 3-0 with Ryan Day serving as acting head coach and will run out of the tunnel at Ohio Stadium behind Meyer for the first time this season Saturday when they play Tulane in their final non-conference game.

“I know he misses it so much,” Sheffield said. “It’ll be great to have him back. I’m excited to see him. Really he drives our culture. When he wasn’t able to be with us, thankfully our culture was still here, and our leaders knew what the deal was. I think that’s what we missed the most, just our leader being here.”

Left guard Malcolm Pridgeon doesn’t expect much to change with Meyer on the sideline.

“We’ll still play hard,” Pridgeon said. “We’ll still play fast. Having him around is going to be great. We missed him.”